The Schussel Era in Austria

by Plasser, Fritz

• ISBN13: 9781608010097
• ISBN10: 1608010090
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-12-16
• Publisher: Uno Pr

Summary

Wolfgang Schssel was a dominating actor in the Austrian political arena over a period of twenty years. He served as minister of economics (1989-1995), and vice chancellor and foreign minister (1995-2000) in VP/SP grand coalition governments. As chairman of the VP (1995-2007), he brought his conservative party out of the political wilderness of opposition and playing junior partner in coalitions with the SP. He dominated Austrian politics as chancellor (2000-2007) in a small coalition with Jrg Haider's controversial aggressively nationalist FP. Schssel tried to domesticate the Freedomites by holding them on a tight leash in his coalition government. He needed the FP to accomplish his neoliberal economic and social reform agenda, while at the same time the FP undermined Schssel's EU policies. The essays in this volume argue that Schssel's political record and legacy are ambiguous. With a confrontational style of governance he unleashed big reforms such as trimming the hidebound pension system and giving more autonomy to higher education. In the process he undermined Austria's consensual social partnership. His record of supporting the European Union agenda is ambivalent. Austrian public opinion in support of the EU declined precipitously. He was a superb tactician and negotiator yet failed to achieve broad popular acceptance for his ambitious reforms. His imprint on Austrian history is so significant that many of the authors of the essays in this volume call it "the Schssel era." Book jacket.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Topical Essays
Personality and Leadership
The Political Personality of Wolfgang Schüssel	p. 7
Rollercoeaster: Schüssels' Electoral (Mis)fortunes and the dynamics of Public Approval	p. 21
Schüssel; and the Media: An Ambivalent Relationship	p. 37
Making Omelets and Breaking Eggs? Schüssel's Leadership in Government and Party	p. 56
Governing with Right-Wing Populists and Managing the Consequences: Schüssel and the FPÖ	p. 79
The Politics of Asymmetry: (Non) Corporatist Policy Making, 2000-2006	p. 104
Unremarkably Remarkable, Remarkably Unremarkable: Schüssel as Austria's Foreign Policymaker in a Time of Transition	p. 119
Policies and Policy Changes
Wolfgang Schüssel and Austrian Foreign Policy	p. 159
The Schüssel Years and the European Union	p. 183
Reinventing Tradition and the Politics of History: Schüssel's Restitution and commemoration Policies	p. 206
Economic Policies and Economic Change	p. 235
Schüssel and the Welfare State	p. 262
The Demise of "Minoritenplatz-Schleicherei": Eighty-Four Months of Wende Higher Education Policy in Austria	p. 283
Legacies of the Schüssel Years	p. 320
Forum
"Distrubing Creativity?": Austrian Literature, Studies, and Cultural Politics	p. 339
Austrian and German History and Literature	p. 344
Austrian-Jewish Studies?	p. 348
Distrubing Creativity: Phantom Pains, Arts, and Cultural Policies in Postwar Austria	p. 351
Book Reviews
Anton Pelinka, Hubert Sickinger, Karin Stögner, Kreisky, Haider: Bruchlinien österreichischer Identitäten	p. 356
Gerhard Botz, Nationalsozialismus in Wien: Machtübernahme, Herrschaftssicherung, Radikalisierung 1938/39
Hans Petschar, Anschluss "Ich hole Euch heim": Der "Anschluss" Õsterreichs an das Deutsche Reich. Fotografie und Wochenschau im Dienst der NS-Propaganda, Eine Bildchronologie	p. 359
Gerald Steinacher, Nazis auf der Flucht: Wie Kriegsverbrecher über Italien nach Übersee entkamen	p. 365
Annual Review
Austria 2008	p. 369
List of Authors	p. 376
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